Koinonia Fellowship

They devoted themselves to the apostles' teaching and to the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. Acts 2:42 NIV

Notice that the early Church considered some things of great importance: growing in their knowledge of God through learning from the apostles, prayer, observing the sacrament of communion and to fellowship. The Greek word used here for fellowship is koinonia. It refers to three very important components of life among the believers in the early Church: intimate fellowship, participation and sharing.

Koinonia means intimate fellowship. It means that you are a part of other lives and they are part of yours. In our culture, that simply means you have to spend time with people and invest in them. Believe it or not, I'm an introvert, and I understand how difficult that can be. However, I understand what God wants for me, and I make it a priority in my life over the busyness of my schedule and my comfort level.

Koinonia means participation in the body of the local church. If you're not serving in your local church, you need to find a way to participate. I've never heard of a church that doesn't have needs for servants to use their gifts and talents in a way to serve the body.

Finally, koinonia means sharing. In the early Church, Acts 2 tells us that they sold their possessions and gave as others had need. When was the last time you truly sacrificed an important resource for someone's need - time, energy, money?

As I said yesterday during the sermon, if you haven't invested yourself in at least 4 or 5 other people in your local church, you need to repent! And, no, it doesn't count if one family has that many members. We're talking 4 or 5 different people. That's what koinonia is all about.